Reviews

The People's Key

The 10 Best Sets of Lollapalooza 2011No. 8: BRIGHT EYESMore than 15 years into his career, singer-songwriter Conor Oberst proved with his Friday night set that "when it comes to highly literate, wholly emotive, personal-meets-political rock and roll poetry, his Omaha outfit is still the gold standard," wrote SPIN's Chris Martins. But Oberst has certainly changed a lot as a musician since the late '90s, when he was first hailed as the Next Bob Dylan and redefined "emo" for a generation. He "doesn't emanate a whiff of preciousness these days," Martins added. "This is perhaps owing to time spent in the Monsters of Folk supertrio or his more straight-ahead Mystic Valley Band, but at Lollapalooza the credit was due to the group that backed him ? five other players who displayed a mastery over at least twice as many instruments."